THE HINDU , PIB CURRENT NEWS ANALYSIS 9 FEB 2018

Note: The following Current affairs has been selected from AIR, PIB, PRS, BBC, The Hindu, IDSA (Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses), Live mint, Indian Express, Quora.com, Hindustan Times, Telegraph, The Times , WTO, New Indian express , The Guardian and is highly recommended for UPSC Prelims and Mains Examination

News Analysis: 09-02-2018

National News

General Studies-I : Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Mahamastakabhisheka

Details:

The 88th Mahamastakabhisheka (head anointing ceremony) of the monolithic statue of Lord Bahubali has begun at Shravanabelagola, Karnataka.

The mastakabhisheka is held once in 12 years.

One of the biggest festivals for the Jain community, it honors Lord Bahubali, a revered Jain icon.

According to Jain texts, Bahubali attained liberation from the cycle of births and deaths (moksha) at Mount Kailash and is revered as a liberated soul (Siddha) by the Jains.

Bahubali is also called Gommateshwara because of the Gommateshwara statue dedicated to him and as lord “Kammateswara” from an inscription.

The Gommateshwara statue was built by the Ganga dynasty minister and commander Chavundaraya; it is a 57-foot monolith situated above a hill in Shravanabelagola in the Hassan district, Karnataka state, India.

It was built in around 981 A.D. and is one of the largest free-standing statues in the world.

Source: pib.

General Studies-II : Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary

SC to handle Ayodhya title dispute only as a ‘land issue’

Details:

The Supreme Court on Thursday exhorted parties in the 70-year-old Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute to treat it merely as a “land issue”.

Indicating it would not be swayed by the history of religious conflict and violence associated with the Ayodhya site, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra addressed a tense and crowded courtroom, saying, “Please treat this as a land issue.”

The Hindu parties and sects involved in the dispute believe Lord Ram was born on this land. Kar sevaks razed the 15th century Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.

In September 2010, a three-judge Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court directed a three-way partition of the disputed site in Ayodhya.

But this judgment led to appeals and cross-appeals filed by parties in the Supreme Court.

Source: The Hindu

General Studies-III : Indian Economy

I-T Department sends one lakh notices to cryptocurrency investors

Details:

The Income Tax Department has issued one lakh tax notices to people who have invested in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin

The tax department reportedly conducted a nation-wide survey which showed that Indians had conducted $3.5 billion worth of transactions on the various cryptocurrency exchanges in operation in India over a period of 17 months.

This action comes just days after the presentation of the Budget by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who, in his speech, stressed that cryptocurrencies are not legal tender and that the government would clamp down on illegal transactions done using the medium.

However, industry players say that the action taken by the Income Tax Department still does not mean that holding cryptocurrencies in India is illegal.

India is a very attractive market for cryptocurrency companies, both domestic and international. A worldwide study of the market by Malaysian firm Pundi X, which is looking to enter the Indian market, found that India accounts for 10% of the global trade in cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, saw its value soaring 1,700% over the course of 2017 to settle at about $20,000.

India has successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable Prithvi-II missile as part of a user trial by the Army from a test range in Odisha.

Prithvi-II:

Inducted into the Armed forces of the country in 2003, the nine-metre-tall, single-stage liquid-fuelled Prithvi-II is the first missile to have been developed by the DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).

Prithvi-II is capable of carrying 500-1,000 kilogram of warheads and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engines.

The state-of-the-art missile uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target.

Prithvi-II is indigenously developed and is nuclear-capable surface-to-surface. With a strike range of 350 km, Prithvi-II is powered by twin-engines which use liquid propulsion.

Notably, Prithvi is India’s first indigenously-built ballistic missile. It is one of the five missiles being developed under the country’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

Source-The Hindu

International News:

General Studies-II : India and its neighborhood- relations.

Cease fire

The 2003 ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan is now alive only in the breach, with violations intensifying in number and much damage to life and livelihood along the border.

The drift can only be arrested through high-level political intervention to save this very significant bilateral agreement between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

In the latest incident, four Indian soldiers, including an Army Captain, were killed in the Bhimber Gali sector in cross-border firing that went on through most of Sunday.

These casualties are a natural extension of what has been unfolding along the International Boundary as well as the Line of Control for the past several months.

As a result, 2017 has turned out to be the worst year since the agreement brought calm to the border 15 years ago.

The ceasefire agreement had resulted in a dramatic drop in military casualties, and thousands of border residents had been able to return home from temporary shelters on both sides.

It is important to see the 2003 agreement in the immediate context of the time. It came just four years after the Kargil war, and soon after India and Pakistan almost went to war following the December 13, 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament.

The agreement was historic, and a triumph of diplomacy — Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali announced a unilateral ceasefire on the Line of Control on Id; India suggested including the Siachen heights, and the ceasefire was eventually extended to the International Boundary.

Now, as the two countries are caught in a spiral of almost daily exchanges of fire along the border, there is a danger of political rhetoric acquiring its own momentum.

Already, 2017 has been the worst year along the border since the ceasefire came into force, with at least 860 incidents of ceasefire violations recorded on the LoC alone.

By way of comparison, in 2015 there had been 152 incidents, and in 2016 there were 228. January 2018 recorded the highest number of ceasefire violations in a month since 2003, according to estimates.

Thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their border homes.

Way Forward:

Peace on the border is difficult to achieve at the tactical level by military leaders.

India rejected an offer by Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen to send a special envoy to discuss the ongoing emergency in the country, calling instead on the embattled President to first address its concerns over the suspension of constitutional rights in the Maldives.

The response indicates a growing strain in ties between New Delhi and Male.

President Yameen has sent special envoys to what he called “friendly countries” — China, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Sources confirmed that New Delhi had rejected the offer of an envoy because of protocol and scheduling reasons, but also because the government was unhappy with Mr. Yameen’s declaration of emergency and the military crackdown that followed.